Watching this movie in 2019, I felt a disconnect between me and the film. The director seemed to be more interested in the "cutting edge" effects of the time that hasn't aged well. There are several Derpy kid faces, weird lip sync issues, and several creepy uncanny valley faces.
The story is taken from a children's story book, so I didn't expect very much. However there are several moments of obvious fluff scenes that exist simply to pad the running time. the scenes that come to mind are; the scene where we follow the ticket out the window and in the mouth of an eagle (I'm sure it was cool in IMAX at the time, but it didn't age well and doesn't hold a candle to the likes of the "How to Train your Dragon" series), the rooftop train scene, the entirety of the Hobo character, sneaking around the North Pole, the Caribou scene, and the train on ice scene. this movie could've been and maybe should've been a half hour HBO special.
Tom Hanks plays most of the characters and he carries this movie, the little black girl's singing was great, but her character design slipped into the uncanny valley several times.
Ironically the gimmick-y "motion tracking animation" is the very thing that holds the film back. Either it's character's are too creepy because they're real people's movements just overly animated, or it's really boring because of the character's stiff (realistic) movements.
I would love to have Dreamworks remake this movie more cartoony in the style of "How to train your Dragon" to make it more visually appealing and entertaining.
As is, it's fine.
The story is taken from a children's story book, so I didn't expect very much. However there are several moments of obvious fluff scenes that exist simply to pad the running time. the scenes that come to mind are; the scene where we follow the ticket out the window and in the mouth of an eagle (I'm sure it was cool in IMAX at the time, but it didn't age well and doesn't hold a candle to the likes of the "How to Train your Dragon" series), the rooftop train scene, the entirety of the Hobo character, sneaking around the North Pole, the Caribou scene, and the train on ice scene. this movie could've been and maybe should've been a half hour HBO special.
Tom Hanks plays most of the characters and he carries this movie, the little black girl's singing was great, but her character design slipped into the uncanny valley several times.
Ironically the gimmick-y "motion tracking animation" is the very thing that holds the film back. Either it's character's are too creepy because they're real people's movements just overly animated, or it's really boring because of the character's stiff (realistic) movements.
I would love to have Dreamworks remake this movie more cartoony in the style of "How to train your Dragon" to make it more visually appealing and entertaining.
As is, it's fine.